Bausch Health scores coup as stock loses two detractors

Shares of Bausch Health Cos. jumped as much as 5.5 per cent intraday after a short-seller changed his tune and said the stock could nearly double. Also, Bausch shed another bear as Wells Fargo realigned its coverage.

Andrew Left’s Citron Research set a price target of $40 (U.S.), more than 80 per cent above current trading. The report comes more than four years after the short-seller’s 2015 call, when Left accused Bausch, then known as Valeant Pharmaceuticals, of being “Enron part deux.”

Bausch shares have come down more than 90 per cent from 2015. The stock “still trades with a ‘Valeant discount’ despite new management’s 180-degree turn,” the Citron report said. Bausch’s Nov. 4 earnings may be when Wall Street finally takes notice, it added.

“Even David Maris will have to admit that BHC is on its way to $40,” the report said.

Maris, one of Wall Street’s biggest Bausch bears, is no longer an analyst at Wells Fargo, two people familiar said on Tuesday. Jacob Hughes has taken over coverage, although Wells Fargo’s $9 Street-low price target remains.